Leading up to Mother’s Day on May 12, FaithND will offer a novena to pray for our mothers, grandmothers, and for those who have been mothers to us on our spiritual and personal journeys. We invite you to join us in praying with Mary and eight other holy women. See the full novena here.

NOVENA PRAYER
Mary, Our Mother, by accepting the invitation to bear God’s Son to the world, you brought forth new life for all of us. Your faithful acceptance of God’s word is our model and inspiration as we strive to make room in our hearts for your Son and bear him to others. Help us to follow him more closely, even to the foot of the cross, as you did.

During this month dedicated to you, we ask in a special way for you to care for each of our own mothers: (state your personal intention).

Notre Dame, our Mother, we pray today for our mothers and for all women who wish to become mothers. Bless those couples struggling with infertility, those hoping for a child, and each one of us with the consoling joy of the Spirit you found in surrendering to the will of God.

We pray, as in all things, through the name of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
TODAY’S SAINT

Sarah was the wife of Abraham, the exemplary model of faith in Genesis with whom God makes a covenant that is the basis of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religions. Sarah is originally called “Sarai” according to the Hebrew Bible, but her name was changed to Sarah when God made the covenant with Abraham and Sarah.

Genesis recounts Sarah and Abraham’s journey to the Promised Land of Canaan after God calls them from the country of Ur. As the Genesis writer tells the story of Sarah and Abraham’s journey, we see their slowly increasing growth of faith. Abraham and Sarah and their family go to Egypt to escape a famine in Canaan. In Egypt, Abraham is afraid of the Pharaoh, so he pretends Sarah is his sister and offers her to the Pharaoh as part of his harem. Pharaoh takes Sarah and Abraham into his palace, until the whole royal household is struck with a plague. Pharaoh realizes it is because Sarah is actually Abraham’s wife, and commands them to leave (Genesis 12). We see, again, Abraham and Sarah struggle to trust God’s plan instead of their own.

Sarah and Abraham are perhaps most well-remembered for their advanced age when God made the covenant with them and their childless state. We see a lapse of faith again as Sarah offers her maid Hagar to Abraham to have a child (Genesis 16). Finally, after Abraham enters into a covenant with God, Abraham and Sarah host three mysterious strangers. One of them promises her a child, and Sarah laughs. She soon, miraculously, becomes pregnant in her old age and names her son Isaac, meaning laughter. Their weak and slowly growing faith is finally rewarded with a baby.

Sarah died at the age of 127, according to Genesis 23 and was buried near Hebron. To this day, faithful Muslims, Jews, and Christians journey to the highly contested site of Hebron in Israel to pray at the tombs of Sarah and Abraham at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Sarah is a sign of hope for all women who struggle with infertility or who wish to become mothers.

Visit the Mother’s Day Novena page>>
Image Credit: Stained glass of Abraham and Sarah by Lyn Durham at Pickel Studios for Sts. Joachim and Anne Church in Fargo, ND.